Why I choose to get an entry level smartphone over a MP4 player?

Nowadays, little separates an audio player and a smartphone. If you take the SIM slot out of the equation, the two have almost identical functions.

I mean, the iPod and some other audio players out there can download Apps, play videos and games, let you browse social media and watch YouTube too! It's only missing that SIM card slot!

So for a long time, I kept swaying between getting a MP4 player and a entry level smartphone! (You know I'm just so annoyed with my iPhone adaptors! They spoil too fast!!)

Also, I wish to get a decent MP4 player that could hopefully replace my iPhone (which battery is dying) as an "entertainment center". My budget was initially just up to SG$80 but in the end I settled for the Poco M3 which is about SG$100 more than my budget and here is why.

Note:

1) The "MP4 or audio player" in this post is referring to budget players within the range of SG$40-120, with full touchscreen, ability to install and play games and the function to play video in the common formats (like mp4, wmv, avi, mkv, mpg, mov...etc)!

2) Most of the online sellers will not provide all of the specs of their MP4 player, some don't even give any! It makes comparing really difficult, so I ended up relying a lot on buyers' reviews, cross references and some guess work (LOL). 

3) The smartphones mentioned in this post (unless stated) are entry to mid-range phone that price ranges from SG$120 - 200! 

Mobile Data connection

While I’ve came across audio (MP4) player that comes with the SIM card slot, they’re relatively more expensive than an entry level smartphone due to its lower specs.

And that takes us to the next point.

RAM and ROM

The MP4 player mentioned above actually cost about SG$115 (estimated) and it probably only have 1-2GB of RAM and 8GB ROM, Quad core. And the Poco M3 cost SG$179(early bird price)-199 for 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM, Octa core!

Both will be based on Android system with Poco M3 running MIUI 12 (based on Android 10) and the MP4 player running on Android 6.

However, the Poco M3 have a much larger screen (6.53”) as compared to the 4.8” screen of the audio player!

This will makes a lot of difference when typing, reading and watching videos!

Battery

Next up is the battery capacity. Most smartphones comes will much more battery capacity (at least 4000mAh) when compared to any audio players out there.

The largest battery capacity I’ve seen on a MP4 player is actually 3000mAh but most budget players only have 500-1600 mAh. They promise about 10 (for 500mAh) - 60 hours (for 1600mAh) of music and much lesser if watching videos.

I really cannot imagine how long a player with such battery capacity will last when it comes to playing games or streaming videos!

Music Player, Emulators and Games

While some higher end audio players runs on Android system and can allow you to download and install apps, they just don't have enough RAM to run some of the games. Not to mention that they usually don't come with much memory space. (usually 8-16GB, anything above 16GB is very rare!)

Even when they do support microSD card expansion till a maximum of 128GB (some rare ones can go up to 256GB), you usually can't install apps to the external memory, so you're pretty much stuck with the 8-16GB! Which won't be much left due to the installed system files.

I've some "strict" requirement for my music player - it needs to show album art, show artistes profile and have scrollable lyrics. It also has to have the option to sort by artistes, albums and create playlists.

Unfortunately, most budget MP4 players doesn't have a proper sorting and filter system and it's always a mess to search for songs! The better ones, mostly doesn't comes with scrollable lyrics, and only shows lyrics in LRC format! This of course can be solved if the player can download Music players app.

I run PPSSPP on my Poco M3. It's running smooth for most games I play (Gungnir, Bomberman and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes) but it does stutters a little on some more demanding games.

If a game stutters on a 4GB RAM then I doubt it could work well on a player with only 1-2GB RAM!

Camera

I've yet to come across a MP4 player that comes with a decent camera. I've saw one selling online that comes with a single 5MP back camera and that MP4 is a really rare gem as that is the only one that I found that comes with a camera! 

Most smartphones comes with at least 2 cameras (front and back) and at least 8MP.
The Poco M3 have a 48MP camera!!

OS/Firmware Update

I know budget or entry level phone's don't get much updates but there will be at least 1 or 2 updates versus no updates at all for most budget MP4 players!

But considering that most budget MP4 players only comes with 8-16GB of space, they probably don't have enough space for updates!

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it's still personal preference. I believe there will be people who actually prefers the MP4 smaller size or doesn't want the 4G/5G connections nor do they need so much RAM. (Say for a child or they actually want it solely for Music) 

While I've quite a mediocre experience with a very budget (SG$16) MP3/MP4 player (Benjie Nuo Bi Xing v3 Audio Player: review), I believe there'll be a MP4 player with great quality that is within the SG$80-120 range! 

But my preference is clear and I must say it's after much struggle that I opted to get the Poco M3 instead. I could really use a "spare" phone (although now it's being use more than my "main" phone. LOL). The biggest reason I got the Poco M3 is that I think it have a higher RAM and ROM space, giving it the ability to serve more functions (apps and games) and also more possibility of being able to keep up with future updates!

What strategies did Grab put in place to push its riders to take up more jobs?

Firstly, I must state that this is my personal opinion and analysis, so it's definitely not official. Also, I'm not doing this to critisise or judge anyone, in fact, I thought they do have some great strategy into motivating the riders.

Quests and Zone Boost

Quests

I think I've mentioned (and complained) many times about the Quests (both Weekend and Weekdays) being too difficult to meet. 

But there are riders out there that rode through the rain and for long hours daily just to hit those targets. Yes, it is possible to reach the minimum targets, if you stay outside for more than 6-7 hours daily and if you wish to hit the higher levels, then you would need to be out for more than 8-9 hours daily. 

I'll just give you an example.

The highest level of incentive for walkers for the Weekday Quest is 60 gems = 60 orders.

That means 12 orders per day. From my personal experience, I ever did 10 orders on a single weekday and I was outside riding for almost 11 hours in total! But it was on a Monday (which is said to be the "busiest" weekday). There are days whereby I stayed online for 5 hours and only got 3-4 jobs. 

Anyway, reaching 60 orders is a lot about luck and of course, the demand. I don't know if any walkers did reach that target, but I never did. I didn't even get close to that!

Zone Boost

Zone boost are extra gems (doesn't not count into the Quests gems!!) that you can earn if you happen to deliver in certain zones during certain period. 

For walkers, only orders completed in the Downtown Zone during 11:00 - 15:00 and 17:00 - 21:00 counts. Each order earns you 20 gems and you need a minimum of 40 gems to qualify. Each gems converts to $0.05.

Also there is the "Treasure Zone" which will appear randomly to random riders. So what happen is, it'll appear and you'll be given a limited time (usually 12-10 minutes) to rush into the zone. If you make it in there and did 1 order, you'll get the number of gems promised. Depending on timing, it could be as high as 90 gems and as low as 30+ gems (from my personal experience). Gems earn from Treasure Zone counts into Zone Boost.

To be honest, I think its nearly impossible for walkers to make it into the zone on time, even if they jog. If they're lucky enough to catch a bus (and it doesn't stop for the next few stops) then there is a slight chance for them to make it in on time! 

But of course, you can pray that Grab will be kind enough to give your the Treasure Zone when you're within walking distance!

Competitions

During the extra peak seasons, like public holidays and especially the Christmas cum New Year period, Grab will come up with competitions that pit the riders against each other.

For example, they have an individual and Team mission competition just this Christmas period. Riders are placed into Teams of 4 randomly by Grab, and no one can change Team. (Sorry if you get team member like me.)

This competition is both complicated and well, shows how smart Grab is in making the riders work during their peak hours.

Firstly, different number of gems are awarded for differently timing and Zones. So obviously, more gems are awarded for the "Powerup" areas during the peak hours.

Note: These gems for the Team Mission competition DOES NOT count into Zone boost or Quests! They're solely for the Team Mission! 

Nope, I wouldn't tell you which Team I'm in.

You can only earn gems during 9:00 - 21:30, so night owl like me, basically don't get to earn much gems. Yes, sorry, my Team, I didn't contribute much, but I must admit, I do feel a little "pressured" to at least contribute a little. This feeling gets stronger when I saw that my team is just a little behind the team ahead of us.

And also, if you take a look at the picture above, you get +20 for every extra batch/group order, which means that if you have gotten batch/group order, you're actually earning lesser gems. Well, because it's not (50x2) but 50+20 for that 2 trips! So yeah, batch order becomes a "hindrance" for getting more gems for the competition!

And trust me, there are A LOT more batch/groups orders during this period!! In fact, you'll get at least 1 such order per day!

Anyway, there is also the individual competition which uses the same set of rules. But this time round, the 10 ten winners from their respective mode of delivery (walker and PMA in one category. PAB, bicycle, motorcycle and cars are all competing in the same category - good luck, the leg powered riders!) gets a prize. And hell, the prizes are attractive! The top prize for walker and PMA category is a Huawei Nova i7!

The team prize is well ... not as attractive. 

"Special"/Festive/Public Holidays Quests

Grab will have special quests during most festive seasons, whereby they either:

1) Group the public holiday into the Weekend Quest (say National Day falls on a Monday and that Monday will be counted into the Weekend Quest and of course, they'll increase the minimum target from say 20 trips to maybe 30 trips, the incentive amount earned per order stays about the same)

So if the original incentive is 20 orders = $10, it'll become 30 orders = $15.

2) Make a "special" quest just for the holidays. This usually happen for Christmas and New Year only. Like this year round, there is a daily "New Year Quest" whereby the minimum is 10 orders! Yes, 10 orders in one day! Well, I must say it's achievable, especially during the weekends, but yes, expect long working and WAITING hours!

The good thing is, all these Quests and Competitions runs simultaneously, so you're getting gems for all of them for every order you completed!

So if I completed an order complete at 18:00 on a weekday in Standard Zone during the Team Mission competition period, it will earn me - 50 gems for the Team Mission, 1 gem for the Weekday Quest and 0 gems for the Zone Boost (since walker only get Zone Boost in Downtown area).

Grab Benefits

Well, Grab riders does enjoy some benefits like offers, discounts and Birthday GrabFood Vouchers. However, you don't just enjoy the benefits by being a rider, some of the benefits requires you to work hard for them!

Grab groups the riders into Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire according to the trips they completed in a given month. Each tier will have different amount of benefits!

A very good example, Emerald riders don't get Birthday GrabFood Voucher at all, while Ruby riders enjoy $20 Birthday GrabFood Voucher while Sapphire riders enjoy $50 Birthday GrabFood Voucher.

There are other benefits that only Sapphire riders enjoys - Priority Queue for Grab Hotline (Pretty much useless if most riders are in this tier!), Grab Jacket Giveaway, Weekly Allowance for Downtown trips.

Compensations and Goodwill Rewards

Compensations

While I don't really consider this as a "strategy" because it was forced out of Grab when riders got fed-up with waiting (some orders take up to 2 hours!) or that orders have gotten so huge, they risk spilling them or hurting themselves. (Search online and you'll find GrabMart orders with 2-3 cartons of beers or a packet of 5kg rice! Not to mention 8-10 McDonald's meals with upsized drinks!) Many riders would just outright cancel such orders when they receive one.

Grab, have to introduce extra compensation for such orders, hence we now have the "Long waiting time compensation" and "Large order compensation". What you can do is contact Grab (either via the in-app chat or call their hotline) and they'll review your order. The criteria for large order compensation is never clear, just a very vague "if it can't fit into the (Grab) bag, then it'll likely qualify". 

The large order compensation is $8.

Note: Always snap a photo of your order if you want to request for large order compensation! They'll ask you for that and then review it before giving you a respond.

For long waiting time, it's $4 for 30 minutes, $6 for an hour and $8 for 1.5 hours. I think it goes up with longer waiting time. The "timer" starts when you hit "I'm at restaurant" and ends when "Collect order" is hit. However, I do think Grab does track your GPS while validating your requests, so if your GPS is weak or doesn't mark your location correctly, it might affect the approval. They'll probably check against their own database too, so don't think you can just get the compensation by not pressing the buttons.

From my personal experience, Grab is rather "skeptical" about awarding this compensation if you waited for just around 30-35 minutes. 

I can only share my experience. Twice, I've waited for more than 30 minutes, up to 36 minutes and Grab rejected both my requests. (And I'm sure my GPS is working fine for the locations! And I'm sure there are riders waiting as long or longer than me!) So I don't know if they've "discretely" up the minimum waiting time. 

For orders with longer waiting hours (like obviously more than 45 minutes), they'll compensate accordingly, rounding down to the nearest 30 minute or hour.

Goodwill Rewards

These rewards are small "rewards" for riders in recognition of their efforts, it's usually given in these 2 cases:

1) If rider went to a restaurant only to find it closed and they have no choice but to cancel the order. You've to chat with the CS to cancel for you (else your cancellation rate will be affected)  and they'll need you to take photo of the closed shop as proof.

2) The order was cancelled after they arrived at the restaurant (meaning they've hit "I'm at restaurant"). So if you're there but forgot to hit the "I'm at restaurant", they might not award you the compensation. This is usually automatically given and requires no action from the rider.

These rewards are $2.50. 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Grab does knows that its riders/drivers are the ones that help them earn their money. While I couldn't say Grab has been 100% fair, I must admit that Grab has great strategies to make their riders work hard for them. 

Even though I can't agree with everything they do (especially for the Treasure Zone, which cause riders to rush and speed) and also their "skeptical" attitude towards giving compensations.

I do hope that they consider the hardship of their riders and give the appropriate compensations when they deserve them! Remember that no one stays as the market leader all the time.